Page 4 of Caffeine & Chaos

“I’ll have the black bean soup and an order of cheese toast.” Nadia closed her menu and handed it to the waitress.

“So?! Continue please, don’t leave a girl hanging!” Mandy looked at her expectantly.

“Well, you will never guess who the guy was,” Nadia paused for effect, “Ryan McKellen.”

Mandy’s head flipped back, and she laughed riotously. “Get the fuck outta here!” When Nadia didn’t laugh alongside her, Mandy continued “Seriously? And he took you to that dumpy motel? The guy has over a billion dollars!”

“No, that’s not who I went home with.”

Mandy frowned at her, “wait a minute, you mean to tell me you could have gone home with gorgeous, billionaire-playboy Ryan McKellen, and you just chose not to? Are you out of your mind?!”

It was Nadia’s turn to laugh now. Mandy’s flare for the dramatic never ceased to amaze her. “No, just let me finish the story. When the song ended, I turned around to see who it was, and there was no one there. The guy had taken off.”

“Nadia,” Mandy frowned and pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers, “I don’t understand. You said it was Ryan McKellen, but you never saw him?”

“Yes and no. I saw his back as he made his way through the crowd towards the exit.”

Mandy laughed again, “So you think it was Ryan McKellen. This is making more sense now. You had to be imagining things. Think about it. What on earth would he be doing at El Palenque on a Friday night? Trust me; he has much better things to do.”

“You think about it!” Nadia said defensively. “Why does he come into our little cafe every morning? I’m sure he has a slew of personal chefs who are perfectly capable of making him a coffee. He obviously likes to get out.”

Mandy’s expression said she wasn’t buying it.

“Mandy, I know it was him. I didn’t realize it in the moment, but I smelled his cologne while we were dancing, and I have been staring at his perfect ass every time he leaves the cafe. I know it was him.”

“Mmhhmm, sure it was. Look, it’s understandable, you were all worked up from what happened with him yesterday morning and you wanted that guy to be him.”

Nadia rolled her eyes hard but decided to drop it for the time being. “What did you end up doing after I left last night?”

“Are you really going to try and get away with not telling me who you did actually sleep with last night?” Mandy gave Nadia a crooked grin as her way of saying gotcha.

“Oh fine” Nadia spat out. “He was some college kid named Travis.” She felt a slight pang of guilt for being so flippant about him.

“And?”

“And what? He was cute and happened to be in the right place at the right time.” Under normal circumstances, before Ryan had wounded her ego, she would never have been interested in him.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Nadia you opportunistic predator.” Mandy waggled her finger at Nadia. “Seriously though, could you make this part of the story anymore boring? What happened with him?”

“He approached me right after Ryan took off and I was pretty amped up from that, so I just went for it. We had a few more drinks, danced a bit, and then we hopped in a cab and ended up at the Buenas Noches Motel together.”

“And? Stop stalling and give me the dirty details already!” Mandy exclaimed.

Nadia snorted. Mandy was never afraid to speak frankly or ask questions that others might think were too forward. “He was sweet and passionate. I don’t know how to describe it... his performance had a kind of sense of urgency to it. He wasn’t overly skilled, but I wouldn’t describe it as bad. I took off before he woke up.”

“Nothing worse than trying to make small talk with the stranger who plunged you only hours earlier.” Mandy grinned widely as Nadia’s face contorted in disgust at her crass description.

“Yeah, and he insisted we cuddle afterward, which should have been sweet, but you know... I just wasn’t really into him.” The more she talked about it, the guiltier she started to feel. She knew going to bed with Travis wasn’t one of her shining moments. Not because it wasn’t going any further than a one-night stand, but because she had used him as a cheap substitute for Ryan. It seemed unfair to him.

Nadia changed the subject. “So, the next time Ryan comes into the cafe I am going to be one icy bitch.”

“Are you crazy? In the one in a million chance that it actually was him, which it wasn’t, but if it was, it means he’s into you.”

“It was most definitely him, and I am not about to let him get away with treating me like a toy that he can take out and play with whenever he wants.” Despite her bravado, the thought of being Ryan’s plaything was scintillating. She would gladly invite him to slide his powerful hands across her skin again.

“Well good luck with that. I bet he walks in, you cream your panties, and then beg him to take you right there on the counter.”

They laughed boisterously together. Mandy was so unlike the pretentious rich girls Nadia had grown up with in New York. She didn’t give a damn about what other people thought, and Nadia loved her for it.

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